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Christmas 2016 Update

by SiREN |
February 3, 2017 |
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Welcome to SiREN’s Christmas 2016 update.

We hope you have had a wonderful year working in the sector. It is with anticipation of another year of success and progress in our collaborative efforts that we pack away for a few days of holiday before we start again. May we indeed see great outcomes in relation to well-planned projects, with good practice evaluation and research measures as we forge ahead, and please contact us for any help required.

We would also like to welcome you to our new website. To design this we have had help from the sector over a period to test usability, visual aspects and content, including a 10 person workshopping session here at Curtin with a breadth of people from the sector. Please let us know if you have any comments by emailing our SiREN mailbox. We welcome your feedback.

SiREN Needs Assessment

In order to inform our practice going forward here at SiREN we do a needs assessment every 2 years. This needs assessment is about you as a sector member – it’s you who have the most valuable input for us - by being on the ground, being within a service organisation, or as a policy maker, or a client yourself. We would greatly appreciate you filling out our needs assessment survey online please, it’s the type you can start and come back to if you get interrupted. Your feedback will ensure that the Department of Health's investment in SiREN is directed to activities of most importance and value to the SHBBV sector in WA. Responses to the survey remain completely confidential and will not be identifiable to you or your organisation. SiREN has approval to conduct this survey from the Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval Number SPH-50-2012).

Complete the SIREN Needs Assessment survey by following this link;

Thank you so very much in advance for your contribution. A summary of the survey results will be posted on the SiREN website in early 2017.

This issue’s “Researcher Profile”:

Associate Professor Sam Winter is a researcher in human sexuality at Curtin University’s School of Public Health. Before moving to Australia in 2015 he was in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. Dr Winter’s interests include sexuality education; and sexual and gender diversity, rights, health and development. A psychologist by training and professional experience, he has researched and published extensively in trans health and rights, as well as working with trans clients. He currently has around 50 publications in this area. He authored the UNDP’s 2012 Lost in Transition report, and was commissioned lead author for two of the four papers in the recent ground breaking Lancet series on global transgender health. He is a board member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and is one of the authors of their most recent Standards of Care (SOC-7). He has worked with numerous UN agencies, including with WHO and UNAIDs HQs in Geneva, and with the Asia-Pacific regional offices of UNAIDS, UNDP, WHO, UN Women and UNESCO. He was one of the members of the WHO Working Group on Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health which made the current proposals for ICD revision. He has publicly opposed the proposal for a Gender Incongruence of Childhood diagnosis for children under the age of puberty. He has done community advocacy work regionally and worldwide, working extensively with Global Action for Trans* Equality (GATE); Asia-Pacific Transgender Network (APTN); APCOM (Asia-Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health); and others.

Soon after coming to Perth Sam got involved in a project with others at Kids Telethon, Youthlink, the Freedom Centre and UWA to examine health and wellbeing of trans youth in Australia, and their experience of accessing support services. The research, now at the analysis and write up stage, reveals just how great are the challenges faced by young trans youth in today's Australia. This publication will be listed in an e-news when finalised.

Sam is currently engaged (with Catriona Davis-McCabe in the School of Psychology) in another project, partnered by Asia Pacific Transgender Network and funded by the United Nations Development Programme, examining employment discrimination facing trans people in four SE Asian countries. The research, utilising an experimental method, is the largest of its kind. A report is due in the first half of 2017, on release of these results we will indicate how to get to understand some of the findings, and where to see them - in a future e-news.

The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) is pleased to announce its first Symposium in Australia. The Society is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2017, and the conference will be held at the Parramatta campus of Western Sydney University for 2 days of extraordinary speakers, including Sam Winter, Juliet Richters, Anthony Lyons, and Philip Tromovitch, and concurrent sessions on the current state and future direction of sexual science in the Australasian region. All details are now available on the SSSS website which notes the organisers are seeking to be challenged by emerging and innovative research and practice from researchers, educators, and clinicians from a diversity of fields pushing the boundaries of sexual science. Concurrent session submissions will be considered from all areas of sexuality including anthropology, communication, education, natural sciences, medicine, media/film, psychology, public policy, public health, religion, sociology, and other related disciplines. Of particular interest are submissions focused on multidisciplinary perspectives on innovative regional sex research and considered perspectives on the future of sex research in Australia. Here you can find the registration form, call for presentations and abstracts, and the preliminary program. More information can also be gained and submissions accepted by emailing SSSSAustralia@sexscience.org

CONFERENCE: 15th World Congress on Public Health

When: 3-7 April 2017

Where: Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

The Congress serves as an international forum for the exchange of knowledge and experiences on key public health issues, contributing towards protecting and promoting public health at a national and global level. Follow the action on Twitter via @wcph2017 or #WCPH2017.

The 29th Annual Scientific Conference of the international Society of Environmental Epidemiology

When: 24-28 September 2017

Where: The University of Sydney, Law School

The overall theme of the 29th Annual Scientific Conference of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology is "Healthy places, healthy people – where are the connections?" Implicit in this theme is the recognition that there are many different places (the natural environment, the built environment, the social environment) and many different people (the young, the old, the disadvantaged and the marginalised). The 'connections' may be physical, or they may be psychological, social or political. Abstracts for the conference are now open. Please note that the deadline for Symposium / Pre Conference Workshop Summary Abstract Submission is 23 February 2017. For Oral (General and Symposium) and Poster Abstracts the

The Australian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine’s (AChSHM) Annual Scientific Meeting will be held in Sydney this year. The conference is entitled “Rise to the Challenge”, and a conference contact is happy to be emailed for specific details: raphaelle.kelly@racp.edu.au

The SHBBV training calendar is a great place to start to view upcoming events and training dates for 2017. Other useful sites are the Western Australian Health Translation Network website and our SiREN website in each newsletter.

Professional Development (PD) by Visiting Professor, Lecture Series: Professor John Frank

When: Mon 13th December – Friday 17th February 2017

Times: 9.30am – 1pm

Where: Curtin University Bentley Campus

Professor John Frank, the Director of the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, will be visiting the Curtin School of Public Health in February 2017 to deliver some stimulating and helpful sessions to help professionals with their research. Professor John Frank’s professional interests concern the determinants of population and individual health status and the causes, remediation and prevention of socio-economic gradients in health. He will be presenting a number of free continuing professional development sessions. All sessions will be held at Curtin (Bentley Campus) and registration is required. The key prerequisite to these is that the course material assumes all learners have mastered the content of typical introductory statistics and epidemiology courses. The detail covered will include Pitfalls and tips in interpreting measures of population health status, RCTs (Randomised Controlled Trials) of screening, Non- RCT effectiveness evaluation, establishing causation in public/environmental health.

Go to the Western Australian Health Translation Network’s website, or straight to their Research and Education Training Program https://www.retp.org/, to find five new “Good practice” training online modules to up-skill yourself. These are the module topics:

1. GCP Origins and Principles

2. Researcher responsibilities and essential documents

3. Informed consent

4. Safety Reporting

5. Source Data and Data management

Drug Agencies Management Development Program

The Western Australian Network of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies (WANDA) is asking for expressions of interest in attending their Management Development Program (WMDP).

Annie Madden and Professor Carla Treloar, from the Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW, have dedicated much of their lives to working in research into blood borne viruses and drug users. These two brilliant minds bring a wealth of expertise, knowledge and insight to real world subjects in SpeakEasy, holding engaging conversations with very special guests each episode. Listen to the podcast here.

The WA Sexual Health Week Committee provides a Community Small Grants Scheme to enable Health Promotion Officers, Public and Community Health Nurses, Aboriginal Health Workers and other relevant personnel and youth-oriented organisations in regional/remote WA with financial assistance to run a small project to coincide with WA Sexual Health Week.

The next grant round for 2017 will run from Monday 8th January to Sunday 14th February, 2017. Visit the website for further details closer to the application period. Click on WA Sexual Health Week Grants to find out more.

Health Promotion Over $5,000 Grants: Grants are offered to incorporated organisations and community groups to run or trial innovative health promotion programs. Applications must be received by Healthway at least four calendar months prior to the commencement of the project.

Health Promotion Under $5,000 Grants: Grants are offered to incorporated organisations and community groups to run or trial innovative health promotion programs. Applications must be received by Healthway at least three calendar months prior to the commencement of the project.

Health Promoting Schools Grants: In support of the increasing emphasis on health promotion in schools within formal agreements between the Departments of Health and Education and Training, Healthway is offering grants of up to $2,500 to Western Australian school communities. This is a new initiative from Healthway to support schools to develop projects that promote the health of their students through activities aligned with the HPS Framework. Applications must be received by Healthway a minimum of two calendar months prior to the commencement of the project.

Aboriginal Health Project Grants: These grants are offered to incorporated organisations and community groups to run innovative health promotion programs with Aboriginal people. Groups can apply for up to $10,000 to run the program. Applications must be received by Healthway a minimum of four calendar months prior to the commencement of the project.

Capacity Building Scheme: Capacity building opportunities are offered for people working on Healthway funded health promotion projects or health agency support sponsorships. The Scheme provides partial funding support for key health promotion personnel to attend conferences and other forms of professional development within Australia relevant to Healthway projects or health agency support sponsorships. Applications must be received by Healthway a minimum of three calendar months prior to the commencement of the conference. Click on Healthway Health Promotion Project Grants to find out more

In the new year, more funding opportunities will be available for the Months of Jan – March 2017 on the SiREN website.

Articles

ProjectHeartforGirls.com: Development of a Web-Based HIV/STD Prevention Program for Adolescent Girls Emphasizing Sexual Communication Skills. Read more here.

Emerging viral STIs among HIV-positive men who have sex with men: the era of hepatitis C virus and human papillomavirus. Read more here.

Hepatitis B-Related Concerns and Anxieties Among People With Chronic Hepatitis B in Australia. Read more here.

Requirements for global elimination of hepatitis B: a modelling study. Read more here.

Hepatitis B and hepatitis C in southeast and southern Asia: challenges for governments. Read more here.

Your New Job

Health Promotion Officer – Needle and Exchange Program Goldfields

Goldfields Population Health team has just advertised the position of Health Promotion Officer, working out of their Kalgoorlie office.

How about a new book purchase for Christmas, for your e-library on couples with mixed HIV status. Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Couples with Mixed HIV Status: Beyond Positive/Negative demystifies a highly stigmatized and little understood population in the global HIV epidemic and provides original and empirically grounded insights into the cultural interplay of illness, intimacy, gender, and biomedicine in diverse settings with relevance beyond HIV. Click here to purchase.

Edited By Asha Persson and Shana D. Hughes. This is the first in-depth, cross-cultural book focused on couples living with mixed HIV status. It demystifies a highly stigmatized and little understood population in the global HIV epidemic and provides original and empirically grounded insights into the cultural interplay of illness, intimacy, gender, and biomedicine in diverse settings with relevance beyond HIV.